Age of the Dead: Raising Dead
by Coming Darkness
Summary: The first of a trilogy of stories detailing the events of a zombie plague that over runs the world. When the dead raise one man must do all that he can to get his four year old daughter to safety.
1. prologue

A/N: Despite what many believe, the zombie threat is a very real thing. It has existed since prehistoric times and it is still very active today. The virus Solanum has been responsible for more major disasters then anyone could ever believe and yet the governments of the world continue to maintain a curtain around events. If people don't learn how to fight the dead then we may have to face what those in the know have come to call a Class 4 outbreak or doomsday outbreak.

Now before you call me a loony and stop reading this story a will go on to tell you about it. This is the first part of a three book series detailing the events of a Class 4 outbreak that spreads across the entire planet. The first story will detail the rise of the dead, the second will show the world under the power of the dead and the third will show the living fight back.

So enjoy.

**One week after first infection**

"Brace the door!"

John looked up and cursed as the lumbering silhouettes of the infected appeared in the covered windows. They limped forwards, leaning heavily on whatever leg they put forward as the came, arms stretching out and heads rolling from side to side limply as they advanced.

People screamed and cried as they spread out. The women and children ran to take refuge behind the makeshift barrier that they had set up in the centre of the hall, while the men and any boys old enough to wield a weapon ran forward and began taking their positions behind chairs and tables. A couple of men holstered their weapons and ran up to the oak door, leaning against it as the sound of banging and clawing began to echo throughout the church hall.

Children cried and men cursed as the groans and growls grew louder and louder. Hands banged against the windows, large bloody handprints being smeared across the glass as the infected desperately tried to force themselves into the church and to the terrified people hiding inside. The tinted glass was a blessing as it hid the terrifying sight of the infected from their view, the silhouettes and groans alone causing people to scream and run.

"That glass isn't going to hold much longer"

John nodded slowly as he turned to see Sara move next to him. Blood covered her police uniform, making her look like she was in a bad horror movie which, he supposed, they all were.

"When they get through we're going to fire everything we have at them." John wasn't used to giving orders but he had done so many things he had not expected today that it didn't matter now. "Then when they get too close, we pull back behind the barrier and make our stand. The military said they were going to be here in about an hour. Has the sniper been able to tell us how many there are out there?"

"Negative, he says that there still coming; he wouldn't be surprised if it's the entire fucking city"

John cursed. These things were like a horde of locust, as soon as you made enough sound to alert one of them, it would make that hellish moan and any that heard the moan would come after them and moan and any that heard that would come and moan and so on. If the chain went unbroken then there was no end to the amount of infected that would come after them. With ammunition and moral running low, they could not hope to withstand such an attack.

Suddenly there was the sound of a loud crack and people began to scream as the glass began to shatter and break. The cracks covered the plain of glass in one of the windows in a massive, spider web pattern. The entire window seemed to bend under the infected onslaught.

Then, with an almighty crash, the window shattered.

John had to fight the instinct to cover his ears as the air was filled with the sound of breaking glass, scrams and the terrifying groan of the infected as they started to crawl through the window, falling to the floor in a heap once through as they tried to pull themselves to the feet.

"Open fire!"

John didn't need telling twice as he squeezed the trigger in his hand gun, desperately trying to keep his aim steady.

It was impossible to tell if he hit anything as over dozen people opened fired alongside of him. Bodies were ripped into nothingness and heads exploded from the sheer amount of fire power. The infected groaned and snarled as they advanced, lips curling up to reveal shapeless, blood coated teeth. They didn't even notice their companions as they were shot. Even the hit infected continued to advance; only those that were hit in the head fell and became silent.

They dragged themselves across the floor, their dead, lifeless eyes never leaving the men who desperately fried at them. The climbed over there own dead without a glance and pushed each other over in their need to reach there pray.

John tried not to think about the people that the infected had once been as he fired at them. Any humanity was gone from them, leaving only bloodthirsty animals. He had no choice but to kill them, if he didn't then they would kill him, the people around him and his daughter who had hidden at the back of the church. He winched as he pulled the trigger again, a small hole was punched into a nearby infected head in an explosion of blood and John gave a small cry as the corpse fell to the floor with a faint thud.

John looked up to see the door give a loud groan as it began to give way under the sheer weight of bodies pushing on it from the outside. The men pushed harder against the wood in a desperate attempt to keep it closed but they couldn't mach the sheer power of the infected as they smashed against the door. John shouted for them to get away but the infected that were coming through the windows had already intercepted them, the limping horrors hissing and snarling as they moved in for the kill. The men pulled out whatever weapons they had and tried to push their way through the infected but there was just too many and headshots were just too few. The door screamed in protest against the infected as they increased their attack, as they heard the struggle being fought inside.

Then with a clash that sounded like a small bomb detonating, the door fell.

The trapped men screamed as it fell towards them, running and trying desperately to push their way through the infected. Two fell to the floor and were crushed under the decade old oak as if smashed it the floor. As the dust settled people began to scream again as they saw for the first time the sheer amount of infected that had gathered outside.

The infected moaned and they pushed their way through the door, pushing each other into walls or simply crushing the fallen among them under their feet. Many had eyes or limbs missing, those that had no legs were using their arms to drag themselves across the ground, their dirty mutilated hands gripping at anything they could get hold of. It was impossible to tell how many there were, the sea of bodies seemed to go on forever as arms reached over heads and bodies were crushed against the stone walls. There was no-organisation in the attack, the infected fought with nothing more than the barbaric instincts to kill and devourer. They snarled as they grabbed the trapped men and pulled them towards their blood and dirt covered mouths. A pair of men managed to fire a couple of shots at the infected and one infected fell to the floor with thin black blood spraying from its head. They screamed and cursed as they were pulled down by the sea of torn arms, they didn't stand a chance. One man turned the gun on himself and shot himself in the head rather then become like the infected, but the others didn't have the chance. They screamed as teeth ripped at their flesh, ripping massive chunks out with ease, the infected groans grew in volume and became deeper as they devoured their pray, ripping and tearing like animals.

The remaining windows finally shattered and more and more infected forced their way in. they gabbed anyone unlucky enough to be nearby and tore at them, drenching the church wall and floor in blood. Their deaths meant that it was time to get behind the barrier; the first line of defence was overrun.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Suddenly there defence line seemed to fall apart as people turned and ran. Some were so focussed on getting away that they didn't notice the infected and became nothing more than fast food. (A/N: I know it was a bad joke)

John fired at the infected as they surged forward, he killed a couple but it was hard to get a good head shot when they moved around so much. He hid behind the barrier and cursed as he saw that it was never going to hold together. It was nothing more than chairs and tables leaning on each other it was only designed to hold the infected of while the survivors made a run for it out the back door and to where they hoped the military would come to pick them up.

His hands trembled as he slid a new clip into his handgun and fired again. More of the infected fell dead but for everyone they killed there would just be more to push themselves into its place.

"Sara!" John had to shout to be heard over the sound of screaming, gunshots and moaning. "You have got to get the women and children out of here now"

"But the military aren't here yet, we'll be sitting ducks"

"You'll have a better chance than you do here. The parking lot is wide; the infected won't be able to sneak round anything so you can have pick them off as they try to get near you. You should be able to hold them off till the military get here"

"But the infected will just come through the church and over run us with their numbers"

"No they won't" John looked away as he realised that she was right and there was only one way to stop the infected from going straight through "We're going to hold them off for as long as we can. You have to use that time to get out"

"But…"

"No buts…I want you to do this and I want you and Jane to get out of this place and live."

John sighed as he looked to the back of the church. His four year old daughter was hiding with the other children behind the church altar. Surrounded on all sides by the women who were clutching for whatever weapons they could find. Her face was covered with tears as she covered her ears in an attempt to block the sounds that echoed of the walls of the church.

Sara looked as if she was frozen for a second before nodding. She cast him another look before running to the women and children and ordering them out. John watched for a second before turning, straight into the ruined face of an infected man.

John cursed and screamed as the infected pulled him to the floor. He desperately tried to push him away and keep the snapping jaw away from him. Finally he felt his hand give way and the infected lunged at him.

He was barely aware of someone screaming his name and a loud bang before darkness took him and one last thought crossed his mind.

"How did it come to this?"


	2. Chapter 1

Sigh.

Sorry to sound unenthusiastic, and especially after being gone for so long but this chapter has been driving me insane. I've been writing and re-writing it over and over again in the amount of time that has passed since I last updated my "Age of the dead" story. Those of you who have come to believe that I have abandoned you all then I most defiantly don't blame you, I'm pissed at myself for taking so long to update it.

To make matters worse, I'm still not happy with this. I have always had trouble when I'm setting up a story. I can write everything much easier once the action has started so this isn't a problem that will last for the whole time that I'm writing this story, so those of you who haven't subscribed it for my work and therefore don't get a message when I update it, then please feel free to leave it alone and come back in about a year or so, hopefully I will have finished it by then. I hope :P

Those of you who live in Manchester may have joined me in the awesome zombie walk through the Arndale. Those that did, I hope you can come to the next in October and those that could but didn't, WHERE WERE YOU!!

Come next time if you can, k.

But now back to business, for that is why you have come it is not? I thought so . Anyway, this is really nothing more them a set up chapter for the awesome zombie plague that is coming soon, and I suck at writing descriptive and dialogue heavy stuff so sorry if you don't enjoy this chapter who find it hard to read. Usually I just start my stories with the bad guys making their attack, but for this story I wanted to show you how John is nothing more than your average guy before this whole apocalypse happened and therefore show you just how much he (and the world) is forced to change to cope with the new world order. In the later books of the series the dead will have already taken over the world so this chapter is really the set up for everything that will happen, so bare with me. Chapter two is already planned out so you can expect that to be posted soon enough, I hope. If you don't want to read mostly character development then feel free to skip this chapter and just wait for chapter three to be posted, that will feature the undead.

See you soon, hopefully.

Your mate, Jack

**Chapter One**

**Whispered signs**

"Look Daddy I made a train!"

John jumped in his chair as a sweet voice pierced the silence. He groggily rubbed his eyes, trying to erase images of leering faces and blood covered hands from his mind. What had he been dreaming about? He had never been the type of person to have nightmares; he couldn't even remember ever having a nightmare, not even when he was a kid. So where had that all come from? He had had a couple of nightmares after he had left the police force but that had been for a reason, a reason that he was currently trying to erase form his mind. He hadn't thought of that for a long time, so why did he just have a dream about dead men leering at him? Grunting, he shook his head as he saw faces with dead eyes glancing at him from the darkness seeming to close in on him.

"Daddy?"

"What?" John blinked again as he slowly turned his head to view the little girl who was tugging gently upon his sleeve. The dead faces vanished instantly as his daughter's brilliant blue eyes gleamed up at him. There was a joyful twinkle in her eyes as she starred into his own eyes, a certain pride filling them as she desperately tried to direct his attention towards the pattern of bricks she had lay out across the floor. After a couple of seconds failed gesturing for him to look, she simply sighed and used the hand that she wasn't using to pull his sleeve to push his head downward, forcing him to look at the bricks.

John couldn't help but grin as he saw the mass of different coloured, wooden bricks that had been thrown all over the floor. They were scattered all over the floor in an unorganised rabble of bricks and Lego blocks. In the centre of the wreckage lay a slightly more organised group of the bricks, built up in a crude imitation of the outline of a cartoon steam train. She giggled slightly in anticipation as her father examined her work. He made a show of his examination as he raised a hand and stroked a pretend beard and one if his eyebrows curling up in a comedic frown, a low 'hmmm' emitting from his throat.

After a minute of slowly and dramatically turning of his head, he reached down and picked her up. He gently placed her on his lap, grinning as she laughed.

"Well aren't you quite the artist?" he chuckled, tickling her side slightly. The little girl laughed as she desperately tried to move away from his tickling hand, to no avail. She gasped for breath as he finally stopped, her eyes closed tightly in case looking at her father might prompt him into another tickling attack. John laughed again before looking back down at the little train shape that she had made "I can see a train right there. Where is it going?"

"To the shops!" the little girl cried happily. Her blue eyes were wide with pride as she realised that her farter liked her picture

"Of course, I should have known that" John chuckled, slowly slapping his palm across his head in mock realisation. "But you know when I look at that wonderful train; I can't help but wonder what else you can make with those bricks"

"Like what?"

John grinned as he saw his daughters face take on a very serious expression. Even at her young age of six the young girl was very competitive and now that she was being challenged to something, he knew that she wouldn't stop until she could do whatever image he was about to say. It was a fact that he had used several times in the past, to keep her distracted whenever he was busy or simple to keep her out of the way whenever he felt he couldn't play with her at that time.

"Well you see" John said finally, putting on a sad voice as he pretended to be solemn and upset about something. "I have to go to work tomorrow, but last night my car broke down. I've taken it to be fixed but the man there said that it won't be repaired until next week. So now I'm in a bit of trouble, because I need to go to work but I have no car. Can you please help me Jane? Maybe you know someone who can help me make a car"

Jane frowned as she looked down at her bricks. John smiled again as he could almost see the cocks in her mind as she tried to mentally arrange the bricks, searching for a possible way of making a car. She stayed like this for a couple of minutes, occasionally making the same thinking noises that he had before and stroking her own imaginary beard. Then she tried to click her fingers and jumped of his lap before running out of the room without saying another word, her long brown hair flowing gently behind her.

John chuckled again as he turned round in his chair to look at the TV that was stood against the far wall. Yawning almost randomly, he reached forward and picked up the remote, pressing the power button in a single, well rehearsed movement. There was another moment of silence before the screen burst into light and showed the daily news report.

"And so the Prime Minister of Britain has declared that he will support the major economical clear up that the president has been planning for several years now" Today's reporter was a smartly dressed man with brown hair. He was obviously new at the job as he constantly had to glance above the camera to view whatever person or script was visible there. "In other news, the search for the young couple that vanished in England has taken a startling turn of events with the disappearance of an entire squad of investigators disappeared whilst searching in the nearby countryside. Local authorities have announced that they are now treating this event as foul play. The possibility that there could be a serial killer in the area is now highly likely and additional investigators have been called in to assist. However, the fact that these disappearances are occurring at the same time as the disappearances in Africa, Japan and other countries brings the possibility of some new cult or terrorist group rising to the front. We will keep you posted on any further events"

A/N: Yer I know that news report sucked but it gives you the general idea; people are disappearing all over the world. This is the first sign as to what is happening

"That would be the last thing the world needs right now, another terrorist group"

John sighed his agreement as he turned his head to view the women who was entering through the door that Jane had just run through. She wore a baggy, blue track suit that hung loosely around her frame. Her blonde hair hung around her shoulders in a messy tangle and a blue bag that John knew contained water bottles and a small lunch box had been wrapped around her shoulders.

"Going out on another one of your runs, Jess?" John asked, raising an eyebrow at his wife.

"Yep" She said as she pulled her hair into a small ponytail and strapped a bobble around it, pinning it in place. "I'm gonna try to get down to the church without a break and help out with the charity fair they have going on down there. Why don't you take Jane down there later? I'm sure she'll love it"

"Yeah, and then I'll have to win her another stuffed teddy or she won't talk to me for the rest of the day. That sounds like fun" John said sarcastically as he turned back to the TV, pretending to watch the current report about how scientists had discovered traces of a new type of disease in the water supply of several towns and cities throughout the world, trying to desperately ignore his wife's laughter.

"Well she is only four years old, give her a break. You know how she hates staying inside the house all the time. But that's up to you I suppose as I'm not here but you know that she'll tell me all about her day, so make sure you do something with her ok? Remember this is the last day you've got with her for a while now, you go back to work tomorrow"

"Yeah sure"

Jess gave another laugh before turning round and leaving the room, followed shortly by the sound of her shouting her goodbye to Jane and the front door banging shut. Sighing, John stood and went upstairs, searching for his daughter.

…………………..

"What do you mean they've disappeared?"

"We've lost contact with them since last week and even George has become unavailable since we sent him to investigate"

Sara cursed as she slammed her fist against the table, using her other hand to rub her tired eyes. The idea that a city had lost contact with them was not one that she welcomed, especially since she had only been appointed as chief inspector a couple of days before.

A/N: I live in England so I don't know if police ranks are any different in America so if I got that rank wrong then that's my bad, sorry

"I want you to send another patrol car out there, see if anyone isn't doing anything this weekend. But make sure that they have at least two phones, I don't want any excuses for loosing communication, if the press find out about this then there will be hell to pay. Keep it quiet and find out what the hell is going on there, go yourself if you want but I want a full report on my desk by the end of the week"

"Of cause sir"

Sara snorted as the sergeant left, she hated it when she was called sir because of her position and she had made that clear when she had first been appointed. Yet, her staff had taken it upon themselves to make an almost inside joke of calling her sir every time she talked to them and it really pissed her off.

Sighing, she turned to look at the picture frame that had been screwed to the wall next to her desk. On it, she could see younger version of herself grinning out from in front of a patrol car, a larger mans arm wrapped around her shoulder in a fatherly embrace whilst also grinning at the camera. Sara stood and brought her head closer to the image, her hand reaching at and landing gently upon the image of the man, her partner back when she was only a normal rank police officer.

"What do I do John?" she muttered as he took a step back. John had been forced to retire from the police force after being responsible for the death of a suspect several years ago, just after she had made her first promotion. Nowadays he worked at a local business department in the inner part of the city, but Sara knew that is heart had never left the force, she had seen the heartbreak in his eyes when he had left. He had been her mentor and still she felt as though she needed his help whenever something troubling occurred, no matter how higher a rank she was promoted to in the force. Sighing again she turned round and made her way towards the phone that sat silently on the table. She may now be the Chief Inspector, but she still needed her old mentors help now, she just hoped that he wasn't too busy to help her"

………………………..

"No daddy. That piece goes on the top like this"

John laughed as his daughter roughly snatched the wooden building block from his hand and gently placed it on top of the row of bricks and other household objects that they had set out on the floor. The two were lay on their stomachs, laying the pieces into a small group in the centre of the room that was slowly taking the form of a car. At least that's what John hoped they were making, at the moment it looked more like a city after a nuclear missile had been shot at it, not that he was going to say that to Jane, who seemed to have a complete idea of how the car was going to look.

"So where does this piece go?" he asked as he picked up a random brick and held it up for the little girl to view.

"Nowhere yet" was the only answerer he got before Jane turned back to her own pile of bricks and began to use a spoon to check the sounds they made when hit.

John's reply was cut short by the sound of the phone ringing out from where it stood against the wall in the hallway. Frowning he stood up and made his way over to the phone, exchanging a comedic confused face with Jane. Clearing his throat in a deep cough, he slowly picked it up and pressed the green button.

A/N: Oh the tension, not

"Hello"

"John? It's Sara" John couldn't help but grin as he heard the voice of his old partner crackle through the phone.

"Sara!" he cried "I haven't heard from you in ages. I hear that you made Chief Inspector, now that's a great achievement. I told you that you had it in you kiddo."

"Thanks John" Sara laughed "But I'm afraid that I'm already, messing up here"

"Awww, it can't be that bad Sara. Tell me what's up"

"Well I would prefer it if I could tell you in person John. Are you free anytime soon?"

John frowned as he heard this. There was a strange tone in Sara's voice, it sounded stressed and concerned, as if she had a great many things on her mind. He wanted to go and help her but, looking down at Jane, he knew that he couldn't leave her alone. So what could he do? He now all of a sudden had two girls trying to get his attention. That thought was enough to get him laughing, causing, Jane to look up from her bricks.

"Hey Sara, how would you feel about having a four year old running around the police station? Cause if you don't mind it then I can come right now?"


End file.
